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™@ AG^TTO© G§g©D@K]i 



ATMOSPHERIC THEORY 



07 



THE OPEN POLAR SEA 



AND AH 



AMELIORATED CLIMATE. 



THIRD PAPER. 



first Paper, Vol. XIH. Second Paper, Vol. XXL 



CONCORD, Massachusetts. 
1874. 




Giro 



[From the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
Portland Meeting, August, 1873.] 



The Arctic Regions : — The Arctic Basin ; The Arctic Ocean ; 
Its Outlets and - Inlets ; Its Currents and the Gulf 
Stream ; Fog and Ice-blink ; Climate of the Arctic 
Regions, The Story of Spinks and other Evidence, 
considered with Reference to the Atmospheric Theory 
of an Open Sea and an Ameliorated Climate. By 
William W. Wheildon, of Concord, Mass. 
No portion of the globe is of so much present interest to phys- 
ical geography, and to science generally, as the Arctic Regions ; 
and it is remarkable how continually, from a very early period in 

(118) 



119 A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

the history of navigation and discovery, attention has been di- 
rected to, and an interest maintained in, these remote regions ; 
the most uncongenial in themselves, the most repelling to human 
pursuit and yet so attractive that men of rank and position have 
been unable to resist the desire of making themselves more "nota- 
ble" by some fortunate discovery or success in them. In no other 
part of the earth has so much hazardous enterprise, indomitable 
perseverance and enduring labor been brought out, prompted and 
inspired as these have been by the prospects of trade, the pursuits 
of science and the promptings of humanity. This is so true that 
at the present time, when science is ardent and earnest in its de- 
sire of arriving at knowledge and truth in regard to these regions, 
there is in the community a seeming unwillingness to encourage 
further exploration and exposure of life in those cold and icy des- 
olations. Every proposition for further effort seems to send a 
chill through the sensitive blood of the civilized world and the 
question is often asked of what use is a further exposure and waste 
of human life in this perilous pursuit.* 

Yet the demands of science on one hand, and that longing curi- 
osity among the unscientific, who have of late years read and 
heard so much to excite their attention concerning these occult re- 
gions, on the other, seem to justify each new effort to reach the 
impenetralia of the Arctic circle. So much has been said in this 
behalf by scientific men and others that, in this place at least, no 
word need to be added and no justification of past or present ef- 
forts is required. It is no new thing for scientific men to assume 
great risks when there is an object to be gained, nor yet to permit 
apprehension or fear to defeat a high purpose. All that we know 

*The actual loss of life in the Arctic regions, among explorers, is known to have 
been relatively very small, the deaths less than in the same number of persons at home. 
Mr. Simmonds says, '• Out of ten searching vessels in three years, including Americans, 
but one man died, nor did any casualty occur to the ships or their sledging parties; 
indeed not more than twenty deaths in the present century out of fifteen hundred men 
employed and not half of the twenty attributed to climate or perils encountered." In 
a perilous voyage of four years, the Investigator lost one officer and Ave men out of a 
crew of sixty-live. There were one hundred and thirty-eight officers and men lost in 
the Franklin expedition — a much smaller number of lives than have been lost in 
some of the disasters on the Atlantic ocean. 

Since the above lines were written, in view of the recent Polaris expedition and its 
results, a new interest has been excited in the public mind; a feeling ol competition 
seems to have arisen between the United States and England as to which of the two 
peoples shall accomplish the desired object of reaching the central portions of the 
Arctic ocean. In both countries new expeditions are suggested and urged upon the 
respective governments. 



A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 120 

is the reward of labor and more or less of danger. In medicine 
and surgery, in chemistry and engineering, ardent men have put 
their lives in hazard for science or for humanity, and in mining 
and the ordinary navigation of the sea, risks are assumed mainly 
for pecuniary benefits which it sometimes seems not easy to justify. 

In the various and continued attempts to explore the interior 
of Africa we see the indomitable spirit and enterprise of man, 
prompted by a worthy ambition to become a discoverer in geogra- 
phy, history or science, sometimes rewarded by a drear and lonely 
grave, hardly less fearful than that which terminated the efforts of 
Sir John Franklin and his brave companions. There is nothing 
that can be suggested in the way of adventure or exploration, 
which promises a pecuniary reward, that will not find individuals 
ready to undertake it ; and there are those devoted to scientific 
pursuits, as ardently disposed, as daring and it may be as uncom- 
promising in their undertakings. 

The early attempts to reach the Arctic regions were made in . 
the very infancy of navigation, and have been continued to the 
present time almost without interruption by the different maritime 
nations, keeping pace with the progress of naval architecture, 
navigation and science ; and it is almost true to say, success has 
been in proportion to the means employed. 

Arctic Basin : — The late Prof. Henry D. Rogers, in his Phys- 
ical Atlas published in Edinburgh, includes in the Arctic basin 
("equivalent to the Arctic Regions") all those wide circumjacent 
lands which empty their drainage into the great polar sea, and 
describes the region as follows : 

"The Siberian division of this enormous region of converging 
and rotating waters includes the great rivers Obi, Yenessi and 
Lena, and extends southward to latitude 50°, taking in all northern 
Asia from the Urals to .the sea of Okhotsk, while the North Amer- 
ican portion embraces the vast basins of the Mackenzie, Sas- 
katchewan and Hudson's Bay, and reaches quite as far southward. 
Viewing Greenland and the countries bordering Behring Strait as 
portions of the Arctic regions, it will be seen to include all the 
lands, excepting northern Europe, which lie between the pole and 
the circle of SO" 5 north latitude. The broad zone of land thus 
bounded and draining into the polar sea has an area of about 
five million square miles. The river systems of the Obi, Yenessi 



121 A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

Lena and Kolyma, in Asia, with those of the Mackenzie and 
Saskatchewan, in America, alone cover a surface of more than 
3,200,000 square miles or equal to that of all Europe." 

Another writer speaks of the Arctic basin as including six mil- 
lions of square miles, surrounded b}' an ice barrier and receiving 
the waters of more than 3,500,000 square miles of land. The 
polar sea, Prof. Rogers saj's, has an approximately circular line 
coinciding roughly with the parallel of 73° north latitude. This 
would give to the sea a diameter of more than two thousand miles : 
four hundred miles wider than the Atlantic ocean between New- 
foundland and the coast of Ireland. Capt. Barrow considers the 
polar sea as a circle, on the latitude of 70°, of two thousand four 
hundred geographical miles in diameter and seven thousand two 
hundred miles in circumference ; and regards the talk, at one time 
common, about its being exhausted b} r southerty currents, as abso- 
lute nonsense : since that time some theorists have poured both 
oceans into the Arctic ocean, without. much reason for either. 

The Arctic Ocean. — The great mystery of the Arctic regions 
is still in the Arctic ocean, the interior of which is yet to be 
reached ; and so long as it remains unknown it will be the sub- 
ject of speculation and assertion, based it may be to some ex- 
tent upon what we know of its approaches and its borders. It is 
taken for granted that it must'be peculiar .and different from the 
other oceans, and the opinion has heretofore prevailed that it is 
completely frozen over for the whole or at least a portion of the 
year, — which can hardly be the case if subject to a tidal wave, 
even if the winds and storms do not keep it from freezing — to say 
nothing of an ameliorated climate or other external influences. 
But aside from these it seems improbable, as we have heretofore 
shown, that so large a body of water can be frozen over. Lake 
Superior (fresh water) is never wholly frozen over, nor is the well- 
known "north water" of the whalers, in Baffin's Bay ;* and it is 
said by a distinguished astronomer, that " were the ocean covered 
by a substance of moderate thickness, say of ice, the reaction 
of the water, caused by pressure from being drawn up into a tem- 
porary heap by the attraction of the moon passing over it, would 

* Hayes. — "The little sea at the head of Baffin's Bay, the north water of the whalers, 
although but eighty thousand square miles in superficial area, is never entirely frozen 
over, even during the severest weather." 



A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 122 

be so powerful as to break it up into innumerable pieces."* What- 
ever else may be said of the Arctic ocean, it will hardly do here- 
after, to speak of it otherwise than as an open sea. 

This vast ocean is spoken of in the quotation which we have 
given, as " an enormous region of converging and rotating waters," 
terms which are not applied to any other ocean and intended, no 
doubt, by the writer to be descriptive of this according to his in- 
formation on the subject. The region of the polar sea within 
which is included the theoretic axis of the earth, owing to the flat- 
tening of the surface and the slower diurnal motion, is peculiar in 
these respects, and is subject of course to the severity of the cli- 
mate by reason of the absence of the sun. So far as the waters 
of the great rivers which have been mentioned, or waters from 
either of the great oceans, flow into it, they may be said to be 
"converging;" but that its waters are "rotating" in a peculiar 
manner, so as absolutely to form a rotating ocean in itself, irre- 
spective of and independent of the rotation of the earth, seems 
to be an assumption not authorized by anything that we know, and 
in fact essentially opposed to all accepted information on the sub- 
ject. It seems to be supposed that because this ocean surrounds, 
so to speak, or includes the position of the theoretic pole, it must 
therefore revolve around that object, as it has come to be regarded : 
an American writer recently suggested that Capt. Hall would be 
able "to set his foot upon the pole itself," and Capt. Barrow once 
said that on "his plan a month would enable the explorer to put 
his foot on the point or pivot of the axis on which the globe of the 
earth turns." [Simmonds, p. 105.] Nevertheless it is to be pre- 
sumed that the Arctic ocean has its tides and currents, both of 
which have been observed, as other oceans have, and possibly re- 
sembles them in other respects. 

Its Outlets and Inlets : — "This sea," continues Prof. Eogers, 
"has really but two outlets into the general ocean of the globe, 
one of which, Behring Strait, is less than thirty miles wide, and, 
what is of more consequence, is very shallow, having less than 
twent3 T -five fathoms of water in its deepest channel. As an open- 
ing, therefore, it is almost null ; so that the polar sea, on this side, 
is virtually land-locked. The other much wider, deeper outlet is 

*Ro1ijIi Falb, editor of '-Sinus, ".published at Gratz in Styria. 



123 A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

partially blocked by an immense belt of cliff-lined islands, from 
Iceland to the Parry Group, the largest being Greenland." 

The Professor, proceeding with the subject of "Configuration," 
adds :— 

"The sole practicable inlet to the polar sea is the wide channel 
between Spitzbergen or Iceland and the northwest coast of Europe. 
This is the broad highway for the northeast branch of the Gulf 
Stream." 

Behring Strait Prof. Rogers first includes as one of the "really 
but two outlets," then rejects it as an " opening almost null," and 
finally in the same paper speaks of it as the inlet of "a sort of 
second gulf stream * * * prolonged from the Japanese current," 
and assisting in the rotating process already considered.* 

"Thus enforced," Prof. Rogers continues, "it [the Gulf Stream] 
washes the Arctic coast of America, where it preserves a lane of 
open water between the ice-pack and the shore, the greater part 'of 
the way from this inlet [Behring Strait] to the Parry Islands ; 
■there it streams through the great channels of this archipelago and 
clogs them with its vast drift of ice, until it finally works its way 
out into the Atlantic through Baffin's Bay and northward round 
Greenland, chilling as it flows southwestward all the northern part 
of America with ice-cold and ice-laden waters." 

We do not know that the whole or any part of this statement, 
excepting for the favor it may receive from the public, demands 
any consideration beyond what we have given it upon the general 
subject of the Gulf Stream. By it an enormous work is put upon 
the assumed northeast prolongation of that stream, pouring its 
heated waters around Nova Zembla, sweeping around the Arctic 
ocean, "•softening the boreal climates of Norway and Siberia," 
and with the aid of the Japanese current making its way into 
Baffin's Bay, etc., all of which needs confirmation. To say the 
very least of it that can be said, there is no satisfactory evidence 
of the 1 ' prolongation of the Gulf Stream around Nova Zembla ; 
none of its ameliorating the climates of Norway or Siberia ; none 
that it is enforced by the Behring Strait current ; and in fact 
no evidence whatever that ai^ portion of its waters, in this direc- 

*Prof. Davidson, of the U. S. Coast Survey, does not think much of the Japanese 
current for clearing a way to the pole, Behring Strait being only twenty-five miles 
wide, with an average depth of only twenty-flve fathoms, and the rate of the current 
flowing through it being from a half to three knots per hour. [Amer. Ed. Monthly, 
February, 1873.] • 



A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 124 

tion or any other, reaches the Arctic ocean. And if this last, 
which has been so frequently asserted and still repeated, could be 
shown, there are no reasonable grounds of belief that its waters 
would retain force enough and heat enough for the purposes re- 
quired. As to the velocity of the current or drift there is but little 
evidence of any kind : what there is gives it a trifle over three miles 
per hour, at a point more than fifteen hundred miles from the pole. 
As to the heat. of the water, Lieut. Maury's statement is that " a 
cubic foot of water which leaves the Straits of Florida at a tem- 
perature of 85°, on arriving at the frozen regions through the Gulf 
Stream, does no longer measure a cubic foot. It will have wasted 
away [ ?] by the way of contraction caused by a change in the 
temperature of some fifty or sixty degrees." So that the Gulf 
Stream water reduced to 25° (below the freezing point of salt 
water) would hardly answer Capt. Bent's purposes of assaulting 
the ice-girdle if it could reach it, whatever it might do for the other 
parties. 

Besides all this the parties who advocate the Gulf Stream theory 
do not agree upon any plan ; one or two of them pour the heated 
waters around Nova Zembla, without showing how they reach the 
enclosed polar sea ; one or two of them sink the warm waters in 
the Spitzbergen sea and pass the current under the ice-barrier, and 
another party, represented by Capt. Bent, uses the heated waters 
to assault the ice-belt and open a gateway for themselves.* It is 
in vain, we presume, to expect these authorities to agree upon any 
theory as to the prolongation of the Gulf Stream ; nor do any of 
them show that there is any necessity for the waters of the Gulf 
Stream in the Arctic ocean or for such a use of them. So far as 
yet appears, the Spitzbergen sea, from Nova Zembla to Greenland, 
is an outlet of the Arctic ocean and not an inlet as Prof. Rogers 
states. Failing in this particular, the whole theory, so fully set 
forth by him, fails also ; and it remains only to be said, respecting 

* Since this writing one of the leading newspapers of this country which has always 
favored the Gulf Stream theory, in one of its forms, published the following para- 
graph in its editorial columns : 

" So far-no researches have explained the absence of the Gulf Stream influence in the 
scene of Mr. Leigh Smith's recent voyage [in the neighborhood of Spitzbergen], and 
it is hard to explain it. The body of warm water drifted [ ?] into the polar basin by 
this Atlantic current must be many times as large as the Behring Strait current. What 
becomes of the former? Is it lost in the mid Arctic ocean, or is it diverted, as Dr. 
Petermann and others contend, over toward the Siberian seas ?" [N. Y. Herald edito- 
rial, Oct. 20, 1S73 1 . The error is in the postulate which is assumed. 



125 A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

outlets and inlets of the Arctic ocean, that all of them are meas- 
urably if not entirely outlets ; and are absolutely required as such 
by the conditions of the ocean, its rivers, its rainfall and its vast 
water-sheds. 

Its Currents : — It will be observed that upon the statement of 
Prof. Rogers the general movement of the waters of the Arctic 
ocean is to the eastward. It seems to us that the whole amount of 
evidence is against this statement. Dr. Kane has very truly said 
that "currents in the ice-flows is a complicated problem." One 
writer and advocate of the Gulf Stream under-current theory, in 
speaking of Scoresby's discovery of warm water below the surface, 
says, " Be this as it may, the current of the Siberian coast is west- 
ward and a continuation of this flow is formed in the great polar 
drift of the Greenland and Spitzbergen seas" 

The polar current, always running westerly and southerly, is 
well known to all navigators of the north Atlantic and Spitzber- 
gen seas, if not to those of Baffin's Ba,y, and is variously described 
as follows : — 

"The polar current coming down through the Spitzbergen sea, 
along the eastern coast of Greenland, laden with its heavy freight 
of ice, and bringing from the rivers of Siberia a meagre supply of 
drift wood to the Greenlanders, sweeps around Cape Farewell and 
flows northward as far as Cape York, where it is deflected to the 
westward," and joins the current from Smith's Strait. [A little 
assumption, in this case, similar to that of Prof. Rogers, would 
authorize a statement directly opposite to his, viz : that the Arctic 
ocean is a " converging and rotating sea," flowing to the westward, 
from Behring Strait along the coast of Siberia, across the Spitz- 
bergen sea, and around the southern, or it may be northern coast 
of Greenland. There is, we believe, as much authority for this 
statement as there is for that of which we have spoken.] 

Another writer says, "The north polar current, after passing 
around the north cape of Europe, crosses the upper part of the 
Atlantic, running to the southwest till it reaches the coast of Green- 
land." Capt. Buchan, in 1818, off the north coast of Spitzbergen, 
was drifted to the westward. In the following month, July, while 
secured to a field of "ice, we had the mortification of finding our- 
selves drifting fast to the southward." [Beechey, pages 83 to 109.] 
Another explorer suggests that as the current through Behring 



A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 126 

Strait runs to the north, and that between Spitzbergen and Green- 
land to the south, it may be that the former current extends across 
the pole ; and this suggestion is at least partially sustained by 
Capt. Parry's experience. In speaking of the current which drifted 
Capt. Parry down towards Spitzbergen from latitude 82° 45', 
Capt. Beechey says, "What may be the cause of this current can, 
at the best, be but conjecture ; and we must at present remain sat- 
isfied with the knowledge of the simple fact." This drift was only 
about four miles a day, while Capt. Ross (according to Lt. 
Maury) reports the current through Behring Strait at from sev- 
enty to one hundred miles per day. 

There can be no doubt, we apprehend, about the direction of this 
well known polar current, from the Siberian coast or Nova Zembla, 
across the Spitzbergen sea towards Spitzbergen and Greenland, 
which, it will be seen, must absolutely cross the assumed prolongation 
of the Gulf Stream! The latest intelligence from this region is 
that furnished by Dr. Petermann of Gotha, who has given special 
attention to the Spitzbergen sea and regards this as the proper 
region of approach to the pole. In one of his recent circulars, he 
reports the progress of the Norwegian and Austrian expeditions 
(October, 1872), and says: — 

"Capt. Nils Johnson sailed on May 8, in the sailing yacht Lyd- 
iona, of twenty-six tons burden, with a crew of ninety men, from 
^roms^oe, Norway. He directed his course in June towards the 
western half of the open sea, and, in the second half of this month 
(June), when the Austrian exploring steamship Tegethoff had just 
left the German coast, was already some fifty miles east-southeast 
of the island of east Spitzbergen, in the middle of the usual posi- 
tion of the polar stream, which generally carries an enormous mass 
of ice towards Spitzbergen and the Bear Islands. In July and 
August of this summer [1872] the ice current held a more easterly 
course, toward Nova Zembla, and left the western half of the sea 
free from ice, as the reports already received from Capt. Altmann 
[of Hammerfest] at the end of August had announced." 

Capt. Johnson visited those almost unknown islands lying east 
of Spitzbergen, in latitude 76° to 78°, supposed to be what has 
heretofore been known as Wiche Land, and the most important 
discovery which he made there was the immense quantities of drift 
wood, sometimes piled twenty feet above the highest tidal mark 
along the eastern coast, from the Siberian rivers, brought down by 



127 A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

the polar current from the northeast, of course directly across the 
Spitzbergen sea. 

In view of what has been said, it may be considered as certain 
that the waters of the Arctic ocean do not rotate around the pole 
eastwardly, as Prof. Rogers asserts, and that the direction of the 
polar current is westward and south westward. The currents of 
Smith's Strait, Lancaster Sound and Baffin's Bay are all outward 
into the Atlantic ocean, and it only remains to speak of the 
current through Behring Strait. The reports regarding the 
movement of the waters in these straits are various and contra- 
dictory. Most of the navigators and writers declare that the 
current runs through the straits into the Arctic ocean, and others 
assert that the water runs out of that sea into the Pacific ocean. 
We have been told that it runs in on one shore and out on the 
other, but Kotzebue, who thought "as a constant current descends 
into Hudson's Bay on the eastern side of the continent, an equal 
flow of water must enter Behring Strait from the Pacific on the 
western side," says " the current from the south was equally strong 
on both sides of the channel." 

The statement of Capt. Kerhallet* is quite different from the 
foregoing, and is as follows : — 

" The current of the coast of Kamtschatka is a branch of the 
Japan current running toward the northeast and the north-north- 
east along the coast of Asia as far as Behring Strait. 

"It separates from the Japan current on the meridian of 152° 
east longitude and on the parallel of 38° north latitude. Its eastern 
limit passes to the west of the Aleutian Islands, of St. Matthew's 
Island, and of St. Lawrence Island. There it passes through 
Behring Strait and spreads over the northern ocean, running 
northwest on the coast of Asia, northeast on the coast of America, 
and north in the middle of the strait. 

"Behring' s current appears to be formed by the excess of watei's 
carried to the strait of this name by the current of Kamtschatka, 
which do not find a sufficient discharge through this strait. It per- 
haps owes its origin to some entirely different cause ; but we have 
not observations enough to show whether this current is cold or 
warm. 

" Behring's current descends from the strait of this name gen- 

* "General Exploration of the Pacific Ocean," by Capt. Charles Phillipe Kerhallet, 
translated by Commander Chas. Henry Davis, TJ.S.N. Blunt, N. Y., 1861. 



A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 128 

erally in a south-southwest direction. As it goes south it spreads 
considerably in such a manner that at its most southern part it 
runs through the whole chain of the Aleutian Islands, and is very 
strong in the channels formed by the islands." 

The temperature of the two currents here described, so far as 
reported, ranges from 4 7° to 52°. The velocity of the Kamtschatka 
current is given at seven to ten miles north per clay, and that of 
the Behring's current at five to nineteen miles south per day. 

There is nothing in these authoritative statements that can be 
construed in favor of a rotating ocean, or afford any aid to the Gulf 
Stream theory. If any further evidence is needed on the first 
point, reference may be had to the surveys of Commodore (now 
Rear Admiral) Rogers, in 1855. These show that on the westerly 
side of Behring Strait, the current is almost invariably to the 
westward, and its»force is stated at from one-half knot to one knot 
per hour. As regards the prolongation of the Gulf Stream, we sup- 
pose it will hardly be contended that it crosses the polar current ; 
and it seems to us that this matter is effectual^ disposed of. 

Fog or Ice-blink : — One of the most frequent and prevailing 
phenomena of the Arctic regions, reported by all explorers, is 
the fogs or ice-blink, which are as common over the surface of the 
sea as are clouds in the sky, and are the evidence of water and air 
of different temperatures. Ice-blink has been supposed by navi- 
gators as always to indicate the presence of open water and this 
no doubt is generally the case at all points reached by them. Capt. 
Beechey, in his experience in 1818, gives a very striking account of 
ice-blink, as he calls it, off the northwest coast of Spitzbergen, 
where there is often to be found considerable spaces of open water 
in the drifting ice-fields. A storm was raging at sea, but it did 
not reach his position and it was perfectly calm where his ships 
were lying. He says : — 

" Over the ice the sky' was perfectly cloudless, whilst the sea was 
overcast with storm clouds, which passed along until the line of 
the packed ice was reached. Here at the line of demarcation of 
the two atmospheres it was curious to mark the rapid motion of the 
clouds to the right and left, and how immediately they became con- 
densed or were dispersed on arriving at it. The contrast between 
the two atmospheres is sometimes called ice-blink." [Beechey, 
p. 86.] 



129 A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

Dr. Kane's experience of ice-blink in Wellington Channel, Octo- 
ber, 1850, is also peculiar : 

"The brig and the ice around her are covered by a strange black 
obscurity, not a mist nor a haze, but a peculiar waving, palpable, 
unnatural darkness ; it is the frost-smoke of Arctic winters. Its 
range is very low : climbing to the yard arm, some thirty feet above 
deck, I looked over a great horizon of black smoke and above we 
saw the heavens without a blemish."* [Kane's first voyage, p. 
220.] 

Capt. McClintock, February 2, 1859, records " a lovely, calm, 
bright day, except over the water space in Belloit Strait, where 
rests a densely black mist r very strongly resembling the West 
India rain squall as it looms upon the distant horizon." p. 20. 
Belloit Strait is in about lat. 72°, north of Boothia Felix, and 
wholly beyond the reach of the Gulf Stream. In similar cases 
the record is, almost constant fog excepting in very boisterous 
weather and heavy gales. 

In speaking of the fogs, Capt. Hall found all his experience-in 
the Arctic Regions or elsewhere at fault. He says — 

" Before coming to the north, I thought I was prepared to give 
a fair statement of the true theoiw of fogs. I am satisfied that 
no man can give a satisfactory reason for the appearance and the 
sudden disappearance, their reappearance and final dispersion, as 
I have witnessed them during the last few days." [Hall's Arctic 
Expedition. Harper's edition, 1865.] 

Capt. Hall's difficulty is only what others have experienced 
before him ; it is the same as that which compelled Dr. Hayes to 
declare that " facts made mischief with his theories," and required 
Mr. Schott to account for the warm winds experienced by Dr. 
Kane by declaring that they " must have originated or blown over 
a water area partially open [ ?] of the temperature of 29°." The 
fogs, as Capt. Hall saw them, and as other explorers have seen 
them " throughout the year ;" the thawing and tropic showers of 
Dr. Hayes, and the warm winds of Dr. Kane and others, are cer- 
tainly not to be explained on the theory of the Gulf Stream 

* Something like this occurred in Boston harbor in Jan., 1866, and is described as 
follows :— 

" The vapor is rising in clouds from the surface of the water in the harbor, and hides 
from sight the islands, and the shipping riding at anchor in the stream. The atmos- 
pheric mirage at early dawn was wonderful. The ice is forming rapidly in the 
harbor." [Boston, Jan. 8, 1866.] 

Probably the same thing has often occurred at Boston. Ice smoke has been fre- 
quently observed by the writer on Charles river, driven over the surface of the ice 
with the wind. 

A. A. A. S. VOL. XXII. 9 



A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 130 

waters. Of course no " area of water partially open" can origi- 
nate a wind which will make the "upper deck sloppy" and raise 
the temperature of the lower deck to 75°, as in the case of Capt. 
McClintock. The Gulf Stream itself removed bodily, so to speak, 
into the Arctic Regions, could not produce such a temperature 
under the circumstances stated. The whole Arctic Basin, if it 
were true that its waters are " never chilled to within several de- 
grees of the freezing point" (29°), as asserted by an explorer while 
standing upon the icy border of the supposed open sea, " old ice" 
at that, could not produce such an atmosphere. In the tropical 
aerial currents only, it would seem, is to be found an adequate 
cause for these phenomena, and although the natural warmth of 
the sea and the low temperature of the atmosphere, may often 
produce ice-blink over, considerable spaces, no such openings as 
reported can originate a warm wind or account for other known 
phenomena. Fogs and clouds are produced by atmospheres of 
different conditions, as regards temperature and humidity,* and 
the surplus humidity in the mass falls in the form of rain or snow. 
A tropical current, moving in the higher regions of the air toward 
the poles of the earth, as described by various writers, following 
approximately the lines of longitude, provides these atmospheres 
with heat and moisture, and answers all the conditions required, 
and makes possible, in fact inevitable, the remarkable phenomena 
of the Arctic regions. Nothing less than this, it seems to us, 
is adequate to account for these phenomena, so common and so 
constant " throughout the year." 

We ma} 7 add to what has been said, in confirmation of the views 
expressed, the experience of Dr. Hayes, in the North Fiord of 
Disco, lat. 70°, in August, 1860 : 

" In all my former experience in this region of startling novel- 
ties, I had never seen anything to equal what I witnessed that 
night. The air was warm, almost as a summer's night at home, 
and yet there were the icebergs and the bleak mountains. * * * 
The sky was bright and soft and strangely inspiring, as the skies 
of Italy. The bergs had wholly lost their chilly aspect," &c. 
p. 25. 

" I awoke after a few hours, shivering with the cold. The bull's 

*" The conditions under which the vapor of water becomes visible depend upon 
the temperature and the degree of saturation." [Flammarion, p. 417.] 

•' Fogs are clouds which float on the surface of the earth ; and clouds are fogs in 
the higher regions of the atmosphere." [Dick., Atmos., p. 47.] 



131 A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

eye above my head was open, and a chilly fog was pouring in upon 
me. Hurrying on deck, 1 found the whole scene changed. A 
dense gray mist had settled over the waters and icebergs and. moun- 
tains, blending them all in chaotic gloom." p. 26. 

Climate of the Arctic Regions : — The evidence of a modified 
climate and that in favor of an open polar sea — like the other 
oceans of the globe — at the present time appear to be conclusive ; 
and these two points admitted, our preconceived notions of the 
general climate of the unknown region are at fault and no longer 
to be accepted. One of the earliest and strongest suggestions in 
this matter is that which resulted from the expedition of Sir 
Edward Parry in 1827, when he found himself -surprised by the 
growing weakness of the ice, and annoyed by the frequent rains 
and the repeated changes from snow to rain which occurred during 
his sledge excursion. It may be said if this remarkable attempt 
to reach the region of the pole by sledges proved anything besides 
that of a drift to the south, it proved a modification of the climate 
as he progressed, and an ameliorated state of the atmosphere 
beyond the point reached. The weather and the temperature 
which he met and found, had they prevailed farther south, would 
have made an impression upon the great ice barrier ; and it now 
seems have done so in subsequent }'ears. But even prior to Capt. 
Parry's experience, the circumstance reported hy Capt. Beeehey, 
in 1818, of enveloping a vessel, sails and rigging, in ice during a 
snow storm off the north coast of Spitzbergen which changed to 
rain, was thought to be very suggestive, inasmuch as the air above 
must have been very much warmer than the air at the surface of 
the sea. Morton says, "After travelling due north over a solid 
area choked with bergs and frozen fields [just as Capt. Parry had 
done], I was startled by the growing weakness of the ice: its 
surface became rotten and the snow wet and pulpy." As he con- 
tinued his journey "land ice and snow ceased altogether." Dr. 
Hayes had the same experience. 

Capt. Parry found ponds of fresh water on the ice in lat. 82° 17' 
10" which had been there a long time. Capt. Inglefield, in 1852, 
reached lat 78° 28' 21", in Smith's Sound and found an open sea. 
From appearances he inferred that he had reached a more genial 
climate than at Baffin's Bay. Instead of eternal snows which he 
had left behind him the rocks appeared in their natural color. In 



A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 132 

Parry's voyage, having passed the winter at Winter Island, in 
1822-3, he says, " Now we know that a winter in the ice may be 
passed not only in safety but in health and comfort." Capt. Hall 
in his last despatch to the Secretary of the Navy, Oct., 1871, lat. 
82° 3', long. 61° 10' west, in Kennedy channel, says " We find this 
a much wanner country than we expected. From Cape Alexander 
the mountains on either side of the Kennedy channel and Robeson 
Strait were found entirely bare of snow and ice, with the excep- 
tion of a glacier that we saw commencing in about lat. 80° 30' 
north, on the east side of the Strait, and extending in an east- 
northeast direction as far as can be seen from the mountains by 
Polaris Bay. We have found that the country abounds with live 
seals, game, geese, ducks, musk oxen, rabbits, wolves, foxes, bears 
partridges, lemmings," etc. Capt. Tyson, in the same vessel, de- 
scribes the climate as being "'distinctly milder than it is several 
degrees farther south," and gives other evidences of an ameliorated 
climate. The shore was free from snow and covered with herbage. 
Musk-oxen live in this region -through the winter. "After passing 
the ice-barrier, which extends from the 70th to the 80th decree " re- 
ports a correspondent of the "London Times" of the Polaris 
voyage, "the climate became sensibly modified. Drift-wood from 
the northward was picked up, much decayed. Besides musk-oxen 
rabbits and lemmings were abundant ; one or two bears were seen 
numerous birds from the south in summer, and wild flowers were 
brilliant." There was a marked difference between the two 
shores, the eastern being more favored in climate and vegetation 
as is the case throughout the Arctic regions. 

There are many well established facts which appear to autho- 
rize the conclusion that there is beyond the well known ice-barrier 
which encircles the polar sea, a region possessing a climate less 
severe than that directly south of it. The idea that the farther 
north we penetrate, and the nearer we approach the pole, the colder 
it becomes, natural enough in itself, is not true in point of fact. 
The poles of cold are within the range of the ice-belt, and they 
indicate the prevailing temperature of the region at the surface 
Among the evidences of an ameliorated climate are those which 
relate to animal life in the highest points reached, not in the 
summer months alone but especially in the winter months. The 
accounts of the migration of birds to the north from various points 
are numerous and undisputed, and make certain the presence of 



133 A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

open waters of considerable extent. The appearance of animals 
in Greenland, Jan Mayen and Spitsbergen, in the winter months 
and early in the spring, furnishes irrefragable evidence that they 
remain in the higher parts of those countries during the year and 
live upon the products of the soil. In the attempts made to es_ 
tablish settlements at Jan Mayen in lat. 71°, bears appeared during 
the winter and were killed in February and March. 

On the 10th of November the bears, " as appears to be their 
custom," says the record, became extremely numerous : the gulls 
did not quit the island during the winter, but had their nests in 
the mountains, to which they returned in the night. "The winter, 
though checkered with thaws and rains even in the coldest months, 
was occasionally very severe ; and there was such an abundance 
of snow that it was often up to their arm pits, and sometimes 
wholly prevented their moving out of their house." [Beechey, p # 
175.] 

Capt. McClintock says " Peterson tells me that the Esquimaux 
of Upernavik are unable to account for the occasional disappear- 
ance and reappearance of immense herds of deer, except by assum- 
ing that they emigrate at intervals to feeding grounds beyond the 
glacier." Capt. Phipps, in July, 1773, speaking of the Seven 
Islands on the north coast of Spitzbergen, says the vallej^s were 
filled with snow, while reindeer were feeding on moss and scurvy- 
grass in the middle of the island, and, birds were abundant. 
Capt. McClure, in his celebrated passage on the ice around the 
North American continent, says, " the hares and ptarmigan de- 
scended from the high ground to the sea ridges, so that a supply of 
game was kept up during the winter," by which fresh meats were 
had twice a week, besides the Christmas festival. 

The mountains of Spitzbergen are reported to be bare or com- 
paratively bare of snow. Capt. Beechey first speaks of them, on 
approaching the island, when " the dark pointed summits of the 
mountains, which characterize the island, rose majestically above 
beds of snoiv." Some of the mountains, he says, "have smooth 
rounded surfaces ; upon several of which the snow remains 
throughout the year." Vegetation is " found to a considerable 
height, so that we have frequently seen the reindeer browsing at 
an elevation of 1500 feet. This elevation, it will occur to many 
of my readers, must be above the region of perpetual snow," which 
De la Beche (Geology, p. 24) places at 450 feet. Again Capt. 



A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 134 

Beechey says "we find mountains divested of their snowy cover- 
ing at elevations far above the line at which perpetual frost may 
otherwise be presumed to exist ;*.*■** extensive tracts are 
sometimes seen perfectly bare at the height of 3000 feet." Morton 
also reported Mount Parry bare of snow, and it is almost certain 
that the mountains of Greenland, in the interior, are comparatively 
free of snow and the l'esort of immense herds of reindeer during 
the winter. The islands around Spitzbergen are reported to be 
high and precipitous, but covered with lichens and other rich pas- 
turage for reindeer. 

The Story of Spinks :— One of the most fearful and ultimately 
ludicrous incidents to a single individual in the Arctic regions 
happened to one of Capt. Buchan's sailors at Spitzbergen. It 
appears that Spinks had obtained permission, with a number of 
other seamen, to hunt deer upon the mountains near the the coast, 
where they were feeding. Late in the afternoon a signal was 
made from the ship for all hands to return on board. Spinks was 
determined to be at the landing a little ahead of his companions, 
as was his custom on all occasions ; and his promptitude and reli- 
ability made him a general favorite with his officers. Spinks 
started to go down the mountain, a slow and difficult process in 
the usual manner, and soon came to the upper edge of the snow. 
He here seated himself and prepared to slide down over the frozen 
surface, holding on by the heels of his boots, by which means he 
expected to check his speed in making the descent. But he soon 
found the crust too thick and firm for his boots to penetrate, and 
lost all control of his progress, going down the slope of two 
thousand feet with increasing velocity, and making the fine snow 
fly so as completely to envelop himself as in a cloud. In this 
condition he was seen from the ship and by the men on the 
beach, flying down the mountain with the speed of the wind, di- 
rectly towards the perpendicular face of a glacier, two or three 
hundred feet high, fronting on the sea. To those who witnessed 
his descent his fate seemed inevitable ; but by some means, 
unknown to any of the observers, his direction became slightly 
changed, and the fearful precipice of the glacier was escaped. 
He dashed over the brink of the mountain and was instantly 
buried many feet under the snow. As soon as possible he was 
dug out by his comrades, and when placed upon his feet started 



135 A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

on a run for the beach, having, as Sir Edward Beechey soberly 
declares, " worn through two pairs of trousers and something 
more," in his fearful descent. It may be interesting to know that 
after his return to England, Spinks was promoted to the office of 
gunner in His Majesty's service, and died some years later at 
Gibraltar — where he was buried with special honors by his officers 
and shipmates — one of the few sailors in the English navy whose 
name ever meets the public eye in print, much less finds a record 
on the pages of history. 

Eainfael : — There can be no doubt that frequent rains, like 
those already mentioned, fall upon the mountains, and probably 
throughout the vast water-shed, during the whole year ; and that 
these in the valleys, as well as on the mountains, do more than the 
presence of the sun in dissolving the snow. It is equally certain 
that the melting processes throughout the Arctic regions, and more 
especially in their most northerly sections and mountainous 
countries, are not limited to what is called the summer season, or 
during the presence of the sun. In the summer the process is 
doubtless going on, partially at least, as described by Capt. 
Beechey, while in Magdaleua Bay, Spitzbergen, in 1818 : 

" There is the most marked difference between the sides of the 
Bay, both in point of climate and general appearance : for while, 
on the one, perpetual frost is converting into ice the streams of 
water occasioned by the thawing snow upon the upper parts of the 
mountains which are exposed to the sun's rays, the other side is 
relieving itself of its superficial winter crust and refreshing a vig- 
orous vegetation with its moisture." p. 48. 

This process is very much aided, and likewise carried on in the 
absence of the sun and wherever the sun's influence may not reach, 
by the abundant rains. Scoresby mentions the fact that it rains 
nearly .every month in the year. Hall mentions rain in Frobisher 
Bay, Dec. 22, 1860. Dr. Hartwig reports rain in Spitzbergen in 
January, and there are numerous similar statements.* In speak- 
ing of the melting ice, Prof. Tyndall says — 

"Ice requires a great deal of heat before it melts. A layer of 
ice often becomes a protection against the cold. * * * * The 

* In the Antarctic regions, Cordova, in 1774, says the summer months are seldom clear ; 
no day passed without some rain falling and the most usual state of the weather was 
that of constant rain. 



A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 136 

slowness with which ice melts is well known. During the winter 
of 1740, the Czar built, at St. Petersburg, a magnificent palace of 
ice, which lasted several 3* ears. Since then cannons have been 
made of ice, and have been loaded with balls and fired. They 
were fired ten times without bursting. It is, consequently, indis- 
putable that ice melts slowly and may be turned to good account 
in the polar regions. In Siberia the window panes are made of 
ice." It has already been remarked that rain had a greater effect 
upon the ice than the presence of the sun, a statement which will 
not be controverted. 

Warm Winds, &c. : — The climate of the Arctic regions, so far 
as bur knowledge extends, is one of great variableness in respect 
of temperature, winds, storms and calms.* Beyond the ice- 
barrier, however, there is reason to believe it is one of more equa- 
nimity, resembling perhaps in this respect the temperate zone; 
but of course still subject to sudden changes. One of the strong- 
est evidences of a warmer climate beyond the ice-barrier, if not 
in fact conclusive, is the warm winds which are reported all around 
the Arctic circle as blowing from the true north ; which are in 
fact, what may be called the extension of the warmer northern cli- 
mate to the south, sometimes it would seem to a very annoying ex- 
tent. 

Of course the southern limit of this modified climate cannot be 
defined. It may be different in different directions as well as at 
different times. The reported observations of Mr. Scoresby, Jr., 
are illustrative, although we do not regard them as authorizing the 
conclusion which he reached. From the observations of many 
years he found the temperature in latitude 78° as follows : May, 
June and July, average, 22°, 31° and 37° respectively ; and for the 
whole year, 17°. He inferred from these that the average temper- 
ature at the pole must be 10° and therefore that such a thing as an 
open circumpolar sea was "chimerical." Since the time of Mr. 
Scoresby (1808 to 1818), we have gained more information and 
reached very different conclusions in regard to the temperature of 
the Arctic regions beyond the 78th parallel. From 1820 to 1873, 
we have been in the receipt of evidence, year by year, of a modified 
climate in the neighborhood of the pole, shown by almost every 

* Sir Edward Belcher says; — 

" Climate and winds differ here so widely within a space of ten miles, that it is quite 
impossible to calculate on the weather they may experience." p. 215, vol. i. 



137 A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

species of testimony connected with physics, meteorology and nat. 
ural history. This climate no doubt told upon his statistics, which 
indicate a remarkable equanimity during the whole year, the aver- 
age of the year differing from that of the warmest month onby 
twenty degrees. Of this region, it may be said, and has been said 
of Siberia, "as under the tropics there, are only spring and sum- 
mer, so in the north there are only summer and winter." 

We annex some further evidence upon this subject and the con- 
clusion of the whole matter seems to be inevitable that there is an 
open sea in the region of the theoretic pole and that it is approach- 
able and can be reached ; and the argument goes far to confirm 
the reports of the Dutch navigators that they have several times 
reached and sailed around the position of the pole, in latitude 88° 
and 89°. 

Evidence of an Ameliorated Climate: — August 13. 1821. 
"Nothing could exceed the fineness of the weather about this time ; 
the climate was indeed altogether so different from that to which 
we had before been accustomed in the icy seas, as to be a matter 
of instant remark." [Parry's 2nd voyage, p. 203.] "The days 
were temperate and clear and the nights not cold," though thin 
ice formed in sheltered places. 

Oct. 24. " The wind veering to the S. E. on 24th and 25th, the 
thermometer gradually rose to -4-23°. I may possibly incur the 
charge of affectation in stating that this temperature was much too 
high to be agreeable to us ; but it is, nevertheless, the fact that 
everybody felt and complained of the change." "From -40° up 
to zero is welcome, but from zero to 32° is rather an inconvenience." 
[Parry, p. 239.] 

Oct. 10 to 21, 1850. A rise of temperature from -2° to -4-20° 
with wind northeast. This sudden change was far from pleasant 
to the crew and the old hands warned the novices against "being 
fools enough to pull off their clothes on account of such a. bit of 
.sunshine, for perhaps in an hour's time zero would be about again." 
[McClure in Sargent, p. 363.] 

"The sky of Baffin's Bay, though but 800 miles from the polar 
limit of all northness, is as warm as the bay of Naples after a 
June rain. What artist then, could give this mysterious union of 
warm atmosphere and cold landscape?" [Kane i, p. 149.] 

1853. Dec. "Our anticipations of decrease of temperature 



A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 138 

were in this instance groundless, as with the increase of wind it 
rose rapidly to -j- 25°. Aloft it evidently blew a heavy gale, of 
which we were merely entertained with the whistling and rattling 
of our loose gear atop." [Belcher, "Last of the Arctic Voyages," 
p. 85.] 

"At Bear Island, beyond Icy Cape, in latitude 74° 30', great 
mildness of climate was experienced by some seamen who passed 
the winter of 1823-4, in this locality ; they encountered no severe 
cold nor saw either packed or floating ice." [Ann. Sc. Dis. 1853, 
p. 393.] 

Capt. Richard Wells, of steamship Arctic of Dundee, in a letter 
to Mr. Grinnell, 1867, says he continued to the "north until he 
opened out Smith Sound, Humboldt glacier being in sight through 
the glass from the mast-head." There was no indication of ice to 
the northward ; sky blue and watery and only a few small streams 
of light ice to be seen ; then in about 79° as he judged. He adds, 
" I believe that had we not been on a whaling voyage, we should 
have met with no difficulty in attaining to almost any extreme 
northern latitude." 

"Within the Arctic circle there are countries inhabited as high 
nearly as we have discovered ; and if we may confide in the rela- 
tions of those who have been nearest the pole, the heat there is 
very considerable, in respect to which our own navigators and the 
Dutch perfectly agree." [Barrington's Miscellanies, London, 1581, 
p. 65-6. 

Precipitation : — It seems hardly necessary, after what has been 
said, to refer to Prof. Rogers' statement on this subject from the 
work already quoted, and we should omit to do so but for the fear 
that the statement may be accepted as true. In speaking of the 
great water- sheds of Asia and America, Prof. Rogers says : 

" But through a large portion of the year the precipitation does 
not flow off, but remains frozen on the surface until the sudden 
arrival .of summer sets the whole mass free; then, augmented by 
the summer rains, the entire annual accumulation pours off, dur- 
ing a few weeks, into the polar sea." 

Prof. Rogers could hardly have seen, it seems to us, the full 
meaning of this statement. Such a condition of things, we ven- 
ture to say, under the ch'cumstances, is impossible, and is at vari- 
ance with all we now know of the Arctic climate, summer or 



139 A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

winter. The idea that the accumulations of a large part of the 
year could flow off in a few weeks, is not to be credited. What- 
ever the accumulations of snow and ice may be, the outflow of 
the ocean is never checked, and drift ice is always to be met with. 
The rainfall is very great, as we have already shown, and it is 
reported as melting the ice more rapidly than the heat of the sun, 
even in summer, and rain is reported in every month in the year 
in Spitzbergen, Greenland and Jan Mayen, and occurs, no doubt, 
in all the glacial regions. So that while the rains melt the ice at 
and near the surface, they also melt the snow that falls upon the 
tops of the mountains and contribute largely to the formation of 
o-laciers ; and in this way a vast amount of the rainfall and accu- 
mulations of ice pass out of the Arctic Regions in the form of 
icebergs, which are dissolved in the ocean. 

Recent Intelligence. — -The most recent intelligence from the 
Arctic regions, — that received by the party from the Polaris, of 
Capt. Hall's expedition, is of very interesting character, and while 
it throws into the shade some of the results of former expeditions, 
confirms the most important features of them and adds consider- 
ably to our reliable knowledge of the character and geography of 
those regions. Capt. Hall, it is generally admitted, was able to 
reach with his vessel up Kennedy Channel, a higher latitude than 
was attained by Dr. Kane or his successor, Dr. Hayes, by sledges, 
or any other navigator in the same direction, namely, 82° 16'. He 
went beyond the open sea of Morton and the " iceless ocean " of 
Dr. Hayes, and ascertained that what they saw is merely an ex- 
pansion of Kennedy Channel, with Washington Land and Grinnell 
Land on either side of it, still extending to the north free of ice. 
On the eastern side of the channel Capt. Hall found a bay or inlet 
twenty miles wide, which it was thought might prove to be the 
northern coast line of Greenland. The precise latitude of this 
inlet is not given, and it is very probable that it is the same strait 
discovered by Capt. Inglefield, in the steamer Isabel in 1852, and 
named by him Murchison Strait. He places it in latitude 77° 30' 
and likewise supposed it to form the northern limit of Greenland. 
Capt. Inglefield saw the open sea stretching, as he supposed, at 
least to latitude 80°, but was prevented by a heavy gale from sail- 
ing farther into it. North of this inlet in latitude 81° 38', Capt. 
Hall locates Polaris Bay, in which he passed the winter of 1871, 



A. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 140 

beyond the highest point reached by his predecessors. The land 
on the eastern shore of the channel trends to the northeast as 
far as Repulse Harbor, latitude 82° 9', the highest point reached 
by land, and that on the west shore appeared to terminate in a 
head-land in latitude 84°. These evidences of the extension of the 
land towards the north, it will be seen, essentially reduce the size 
of the open sea and leave us in the dilemma of a recent writer, 
who, almost on the same page, declares that there is no assignable 
reason for the supposition that Greenland extends to the pole, and 
none to conjecture that Ellesmere Land does not so project. 

Conclusion. — In concluding this discussion we may congratu- 
late the Association that, after more than three hundred years of 
exploration and effort, we have reached, it is to be hoped, an ap- 
proximation to the truth in regard to these interesting regions ; 
and although we cannot claim for our country that it was among 
the early laborers in this field, we may point to our efforts, our 
achievements and the results- attained, with pride and satisfaction. 
It belongs to England to say that her brave and courageous navi- 
gators have circumscribed, if not circumnavigated, the North 
American continent ; and to her also, as yet, the further honor 
of having made (in modern times) the nearest approach to the 
pole in the person of her noble son, Sir William Edward Parry. 
Nevertheless, the labors of Kane and Morton, Hayes and Hall, 
have added much to our knowledge of the Arctic regions ; and 
it would seem, by their discoveries and explorations more clearly 
than ever before, have opened the way to that mysterious polar 
sea which has been so long the object of such laborious and peril- 
ous effort, and of such absorbing interest. 

Correction. — In the Dubuque paper on this subject, vol. xxi 
of the Proceedings, the reader is requested to strike out the word 
"thousand" on p. 112, 21st line, probably an accidental interpo- 
lation of the compositor (as it is not in the manuscript), unfortu- 
nately not detected by the proof reader, and as it stands is a most 
egregious error of statement. 



[Printed at the Salem Press, February, 1874.] 






jbrberiGOTri jftssooicuHon, for the fLdvarice- 
rnent of Science. 



T^g ^eira© ^©o®K]© D 



ATMOSPHERIC THEORY 



Oi? 



THE OPEN POLAR SEA 



AJTD AN 



AMELIORATED CLIMATE. 



BY WILLIAM W. WHEILDON. 



THIRD PAPER. 



* First Paper, Vol. XIII Second Paper, Vol. XXI 



CONCORD, Massachusetts. 
1874. 






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